Famous Quotes | What we have we prize not to the...

What we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours. - William Shakespeare
Attribution: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Friar Francis, in Much Ado About Nothing, act 4, sc. 1, l. 218-22. We do not value at its true worth what we possess, but when we lose a possession, we exaggerate (”rack”) its value; he is thinking of Claudio’s harsh treatment of Hero.

Categories: Dramatist, Human Nature, Loss, Values

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